Glorifying Nazism in the Baltic States

Punishment for denying the former Soviet Union’s victory in the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, known as World War Two in the West, must be inevitable. A statement to this effect was made by Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s Emergency Situations Minister and Co-Chairman of the United Russia’s Supreme Council, in Moscow earlier in the week. Shoigu also warned against scoffing at the immortal feat of arms of Soviet soldiers who gave their lives to do away with Nazism. All those now involved in glorifying Nazism must be liable to criminal proceedings, Shoigu insisted, urging to make a relevant amendment to his country’s legislation.

It was in May 1945, when Soviet soldiers hoisted a Banner of Victory on the Reichstag roof, prompting Nazi Germany to ink the act of unconditional surrender. Surprisingly, some hawkish politicians, including those in the Baltic States, start questioning the former USSR’s tremendous contribution to defeating Nazis. These hawks outrageously demand the revision of the results of World War Two and cynically paint Soviet soldiers as occupants and military criminals. They openly lament the fact that the Baltic nations lost independence in the wake of the Soviet Union’s victory, which they claim is therefore absolutely pointless for them.

In Latvia, for example, former Soviet partisan Vasily Kononov was earlier convicted of war crimes by the authorities but subsequently cleared by the European Court of Human Rights. The Latvian government , though, filed an appeal to the Court’s Grand Chamber early this year in what many believe may signal fresh hardships for the 86-year old veteran.

In a violation of the Geneva Convention, the Estonian authorities moved to relocate a Soviet war memorial from central Tallinn to the capital’s outskirts in 2007.

Last year also saw revanchist forces’ spree in Ukraine, whose state television did not think twice before starting to glorify National Liberation Army, which fought against Soviet units during World War Two only to eventually sustain a defeat. This is why, state television explained, Victory Day should be immediately transformed into a Day of Mourning. The announcement was especially cynical given that it came in the run-up to the Victory Day festivities to be held across Russia.

Sergei Shoigu voiced dismay about facts of sneering at Soviet history – something that he cautioned also rides roughshod over the decisions of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals.

It seems that all those who make similar moves are eager to finally revise the Nuremberg Trials, Shoigu complains. All the more so that the past eighteen years clearly showed that even impossible things can now turn into present-day reality, he admits. Earlier, Shoigu adds, no one, including me, could even imagine that the Ukrainian authorities will go as far as to give a nod to dismantle Soviet war monuments and a EU member move to bring the World War Two veteran to trial. The time is ripe to put an end to all these misdeeds, Shoigu insists.

Shoigu expressed confidence that bringing criminal action against all those involved in glorification of Nazism would help to protect his country’s history and feat of arms of Soviet soldiers

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